1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a rear seat apparatus for cars, and in particular to a rear seat having a seat back which sections the inside of the car into a sitting space and a luggage space provided with a tail gate door, with the two spaces communicating with each other.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Generally, the rear seat in a car is not provided with a reclining device such as often employed on the front seat of a car. There have been recently proposed some sedan type cars wherein the rising angle of the seat back of the rear seat is made adjustable. However, in the case of small-sized cars, the capacity of the luggage space necessarily becomes too small to be effectively used, because a free space is required between the seat back and the luggage space partition wall for adjusting the seat back rising angle.
In the field of small automobiles, there is known a car of a so-called hatch-back style or fast-back style wherein the luggage space is not entirely sectioned from the sitting space in the rear but is made to communicate therewith. A tail gate door is provided on the rear so as to be opened for putting luggage and/or other article(s) into and out of the luggage space, and the rear seat back is constructed to fall down forwardly to vary the capacity of the luggage space. In this type of car, the rear seat back is free to be folded but the rising angle thereof is not constructed to be adjustable. Because the seat back can only be moved to be either entirely raised or entirely lowered, even if it is possible to accommodate the luggage or other article(s) by minor adjusting of the inclination of the seat back, the seat back has to be made to entirely fall down, thereby eliminating any room for occupants in the rear seat.
Foldable rear seat backs have been conventionally equipped and supported as shown in FIG. 9. An L-shaped bracket 3 is fastened by a bolt 4 to a part 1a provided thereunder with a support 2, which is a longitudinally disposed member, on each side of a rear floor 1 inside of and between wheel houses 9, on which a rear cushion is mounted. An arm 7 provided at the lower end of each side of a pipe frame 6 of a rear seat back 5 is pivotably secured to bracket 3 by a pin 8. A reinforcing plate 10 is applied to the back surface of the rear wheel house 9 and a seat belt fitting member 11 is provided thereon.
Because such brackets 3 are positioned between the wheel houses 9, the distance between the right and left brackets 3 is short relative to the inside width of the car so that the lateral dimension of the entire seat back 5 is restricted. Further, because the brackets 3 are positioned between the wheel houses, effective utilization of the space around the wheel houses is not attained. A strict precision in the width direction of the rear seat is required in assembling the bracket 3 and member 7 so that assembly is made more difficult. In addition, in order to support the loads of the brackets 3 and the seat back 5 attached thereto, the conventional means requires reinforcement by supports 2, thus requiring additional members which are not essential to the frame structure and resulting in an increase of components, complication of the frame structure, and an increase in the weight of the car.
The operations for angular movement of the conventional rear seat back are shown in FIGS. 10 and 11. As shown in FIG. 10, there has been proposed a mechanism wherein an operating piece 12 is provided on the inner wall of the car body on one side of the rear seat back 5 or, as shown in FIG. 11, operating pieces 13 are provided directly on both side parts of the rear seat back 5 and connected with each other through a built-in rod 14 or the like.
However, in each of such conventional means, because the operating piece is provided in the very narrow space on the side of the seat back, operation is difficult and the operating mechanism is difficult to attach, resulting in assembly problems. Particularly, if the conventional means is applied to a car provided with a tail gate door, as in a hatch-back style, the operability from the rear will be very low.
The present invention provides a solution of the aforementioned problems caused by the conventional rear seat and its equipment, as well as its operation.